Abel, Annie Heloise (1873–1947)
Abel, Annie Heloise (1873–1947)
English-American historian. Name variations: Abel-Henderson. Born Annie Heloise Abel on February 18, 1873, in Fernhurst, Sussex, England; died in Aberdeen, Washington, on March 14, 1947; graduated from the University of Kansas, 1898, M.A., 1900; attended Cornell; awarded Ph.D., Yale, 1905; married George C. Henderson (an Australian scholar), in 1922 (separated 1924).
In 1885, 12-year-old Annie Abel boarded an English ship to join her parents in Salina, Kansas, to which they had immigrated the previous year. Noted for her work with relations between Native Americans and whites, Abel taught at Wells College before teaching at the Woman's College of Baltimore (Goucher College), where she became full professor and head of the department in 1914. She also taught English at Johns Hopkins (1910–15) and joined the faculty of Smith College (1916–22). Her most important work was the three-volume The Slaveholding Indians published between 1915 and 1925. After a brief stay in Australia and an unhappy marriage (1922–24), Abel returned to the States and moved to Aberdeen, Washington, though still using her married name, Abel-Henderson. From 1924 to 1925, she taught at Sweet Briar College, then, in 1928, became professor of history at University of Kansas where she researched British colonial and Indian policy while continuing to publish her findings.